I Was Found Guilty of Cybercrimes in Pakistan (PECA Blasphemy Laws)

While trying to secure funding for a project that was approved by Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) last year, I was almost raped by a man pretending to be Balochistan Chief Minister Bugti’s coordinator, a secretary to the Chief Minister tried to extort me for sex, a female politician victim-blamed me for the attempted rape, and the head of the Balochistan Board of Investment and Trade blacklisted me from meeting with his department because I wouldn’t carry on a romantic relationship with him.

I never planned to go public with any of that — as it went against my mission of uplifting tourism in rural areas of Balochistan — but I learned that the man who tried to rape me had 2 new rape cases against him and had the women’s police reports destroyed. Women in Pakistan are hard-wired to believe the shame lies with them if attacked, so his victims could never go public and expose him, so I chose to tell my story.

From the moment I setup my company in Islamabad in April 2024, the abuse of power began. The article I launched 14 July 2025 covers everything that happened to me in my quest to secure funding for the approved rebranding project for Pakistan’s poorest and least-visited province, Balochistan (view my approved project here).

Almost immediately after publishing, the man who tried to rape me attacked me non-stop with fake social media accounts on my posts, commenting that I’m a prostitute. Then he bombarded me with fake WhatsApp accounts daily to try to hack my phone (once it almost worked so I had to change my phone number). He also had Pakistan’s government (PTA) report me to X but Twitter didn’t care.

What I didn’t know was that — while all that was happening — for the past month he and his legal team were reporting me non-stop to multiple investigative branches in Pakistan, including Cybercrimes NCCIA (FIA). Friday, it seems, they finished their investigation and determined that I am guilty and he is innocent, without ever contacting me.

Earlier this year, Pakistan changed their cybercrime laws to help silence dissent and target journalists and activists. Normally NCCIA is there to take down real bad guys, like scam cells and electronic fraud. However, now, it’s a vehicle for men in power to bury news they don’t like. This is how they’ve used it against me.

As you can see above, I was found guilty under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. It doesn’t mention the cybercrimes investigation nor the hearing and ruling. I found out about that by friends within 2 different government departments the next day. Below is my response:

As punishment and to silence me, my article will be blocked in Pakistan in the next day or two as I refuse to take it down. I’m at peace with that as I’ve already succeeded in damaging the reputation of the man who tried to rape me, which was the goal, so I’m at peace with that (read about that here). Plus, every time he attacked me, I posted about it on social media, something none of his victims have been able to do. I know this caused extreme embarrassment with his antics trying to paint me as a prostitute and reporting me.

PLEASE KNOW, I travelled Pakistan for 1 year from Nov 2020 to Nov 2021 and never felt unsafe. It is truly a wonderful country to visit. It’s just NOT great for women trying to work with certain government and civil service workers who abuse their power. My story is NOT about travelling in Pakistan, it’s about working there. Also, I moved out of Pakistan in April and am back living in Southeast Asia.

If you would like to read my article, it’s here.